Growing up poor

[pk62281]

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nvm..

 

[amalgamgrillz]

My family's income was pretty low when I was growing up. My dad made about 25k and my mom never worked. We were never hungry, but we didn't have many luxuries. I'm not a URM, I'm Asian American.

Do you think this affect my chances at all? If it did, I'd say it would be negligible, but maybe some of you have heard stories.

...

 

[KallenWheeler]

According to wikipedia the bottom 20% of US households take in below 20k. I don't know if it will help you to include this in our application because >1/5 of the population has more money problems than you did growing up.

Its just my opinion but if I were an interviewer it wouldn't stick out to me too much.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States

 

[pk62281]

.

 

[pk62281]

According to wikipedia the bottom 20% of US households take in below 20k. I don't know if it will help you to include this in our application because >1/5 of the population has more money problems than you did growing up.

Its just my opinion but if I were an interviewer it wouldn't stick out to me too much.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States

that's a good point, and I realized this topic is dumb. At the same though, I'm willing to bet the average household income of dental school applicants is a lot higher than 20k.

 

[KallenWheeler]

Nah, I don't think its a dumb topic. I think a lot of people have this same question. It would sure be interesting to see the average family income of dental applicants.

 

[iralex801]

I grew up poor too, but I didn't put it in my application in order to be considered disadvantaged. Your situation growing up seems similar to mine, but I decided not to include it because I couldn't think of anything in my childhood significantly impacting my ability to do well in school.

 

[pk62281]

I grew up poor too, but I didn't put it in my application in order to be considered disadvantaged. Your situation growing up seems similar to mine, but I decided not to include it because I couldn't think of anything in my childhood significantly impacting my ability to do well in school.

I didn't put it in my application either, but there is that section where you report the income of the household you grew up in.

 

[Jackson-Ave-Dental]

I didn't put it in my application either, but there is that section where you report the income of the household you grew up in.

That question wasn't mandatory 🙂

Yes my family is dirt poor too but I'm sure its no different from you... everyone around me also grew up dirt poor so its pretty much normal to me.

 

[yappy]

I'm not going to include it in my application either; however, you're kidding yourself if you think low economic status doesnt influence academic acheivement.

 

[flyingforever]

I grew up in a poor household, didn't have health insurance for most part. But, I never applied for food stamps or any other assistance program. I am Asian, you only qualify for disadvantage status.

 

[iralex801]

I'm not going to include it in my application either; however, you're kidding yourself if you think low economic status doesnt influence academic acheivement.

Well, maybe it did but I can't remember anything really significant since we weren't poor anymore when I was became 13 years old. I never had to work to support my family either. Maybe your situation was worse than mine. My situation was like the OP (never hungry, but didn't have luxuries)

 

[peanutb123]

OP. No you are not disadvantaged.

You should have held a job of at least min 20 hrs a week since age 12. Then you would be able to afford things such as kaplan, applications etc...

But trying to play poor card is not going to carry your application to top. You should mention how you worked and handled school. and how you can multitask. But dont try to win sympathy points. b/c they might count against you for ex. in dental school you need to buy a lot of things then the reviewer of your app might think this might be an expensive endeavor to endure. (private schools) so you might be out of luck. best thing to do is mention how you can multitask. And never play the poor card.

if you claim your dads income is so and so. then the question comes up then what ABOUT YOUR INCOME? do u even work at least 10 hrs a week or is it just going to school and back. All these and much more will come up.

 

[promolion]

I played the poor card. Got myself 9 interviews even though i applied end of august. It's a mysterious process though.